I hope your year is off to a great start and remember: whatever you did in January was enough!

I recently read a great article in the New York Times (read the whole thing here) about composer Jason Robert Brown's two upcoming Broadway musicals. His story as an artist is very interesting because his work has been received in a truly mixed way: he has a Tony award but no real "hits," some shows are highly praised by critics, some get stomped on, some have no financial success on Broadway but are done by every regional theater in the country, some people say he's a jerk, some people say he's a genius, some people think his lyrics are brilliant, some people think he's trite. He sort of "escaped" to LA and took a break from writing, but his desire to create was so strong that it led to two upcoming musicals this season. In the article, JRB described the faith it takes to keep writing despite his winding past with this metaphor:

"A pipe organ is so large that the sound emerges two to three seconds AFTER you blow into it. You just have to trust that you're on track."

Um....what?! Is he daring to be vulnerable and remind us that sometimes we take actions and don't see results for 2-3 seconds, days, weeks, months, YEARS, but must trust that it is all working out and getting done in the right time?! But it's so hard, JRB, it's so haaaaaaaard.

Hard, and so dang true. I dare you to take literally 60 seconds and think of an instance in which you said to yourself/your boyfriend/your dog "wow, I had completely forgotten about that but it looks like it finally paid off." It has happened to all of us, and doesn't it feel great when it does?It feels VICTORIOUS and I think we'd all like to feel that way more often.

How do we do it? By building a strong foundation of confidence and taking the time to remind ourselves of our past victories. How do we build the foundation?One li'l trust brick at a time.

This month's Shrink Session is going to be all about taking fearless actions without worrying about the result. Will you dare to take action without seeing the whole path? Can you create a new belief and set a new intention this month that will get you clear and ready to go big?

Plus, Bring a Date is back! For the third year in a row (whoa), bring a date to class on Monday, February 10th, and in honor of loooooove, you each pay TEN BUCKS. Is this real life? (Yes.)

You might remember that I said in my January email that my one wish for myself and for you this year is that we all become more ourselves than ever before. That's exactly what JRB is talking about. It's not about doing things the "right" way, it's doing it YOUR way. My actions are probably really different from yours. Your pace is different from mine. We all need different things at different times, and that's the beauty of Shrink. This is YOUR class: your pace, your workout, your shift, your thoughts. I'm here to guide you, but I want you to know that you are safe to do it your way. You take what's best and leave all the rest.

Here's to your victories, big and small. We celebrate them all! Let's make more.